This past weekend marked the end of club budgeting for the Executive Board. Appeals were heard on Saturday morning, completing the biggest portion of the budgeting process that is done by the E-Board. Next comes the laborious task of compiling all of the numbers that go into figuring the activity fee for next year. I am sure most of you will be happy to hear that the preliminary numbers show a reasonable figure for next year.
While sitting through the budgeting process over the first part of this semester, I again found a great appreciation for our student Union. I sometimes just sit back in awe at the figures that are coming before a twelve-person board for approval. This year Peter, Joe, Lanna, Jeremy, Dennis, Mike, Mark, Annie, Sue, Cater, Chris, and Bill, who are students like you and me, will approve around $7.5 million in subsidy to Union clubs, organizations, athletics, business operations, and Union services. It shows that there is a lot of trust placed in the student body by the trustees, president, and the cabinet members of RPI. It is this entire process that gives me the appreciation for our Union. I am very proud of it and think it is one of the best things students have going for us.
This week also brings appreciation for something else ... friends. In case you didn’t know, today is Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day brings us the opportunity to appreciate our girlfriend, boyfriend, fiancée, wife, husband, or friend. I have been fortunate enough to have had some of the best friends anyone can have from the time I was born. I hope each of you will take your opportunity today to reach out to your friends just to say, as the theme of the Golden Girls does, "Thank you for being a friend." It is the people you have befriended here at college that will be the ones to stay with you for the rest of your life—the ones you will be able to reminisce with about how great the student Union was when you were at RPI.
My final piece for this week is somewhat related to Valentine’s Day. This past Saturday, the Class of 2003 held a date auction in the McNeil Room. If you didn’t make it, you missed a great time. Twenty-five single (well, most of them) guys and girls got up on stage to be auctioned off to the highest bidder from some 250 people that filled the room. The highest bid of the night came near the end when one lovely lady was secured as a date to a hockey game for $110. It was a sight to see. It is these types of things that we as a student Union should be looking to do. It brought hundreds of people together in a social environment that was aimed at helping people interact with each other. If you have any more ideas for great things to do, let me know.
In closing, I hope you all have a great Valentine’s Day and don’t forget to call up your friends to say thanks. I want to say thanks to all of the guys from the date auction—with the exception of two, who took it so well when I brought in more money than they did.
